Huge incentive as St Brigid's aim to ward off Towers

GAELIC GAMES: The last remaining provincial club title of the year will be decided on Sunday and already one thing is certain.

St Brigid's of Dublin play Round Towers of Kildare and whoever wins will join this season's all-inclusive list of first-time football champions. The incentive for victory will be evenly spread between both clubs.

Yet for St Brigid's captain Jason Ward the prospect of raising the Leinster football trophy carries some added incentive. It's been 25 years since he was first introduced to St Brigid's and there is simply no finer servant to the club among its playing ranks. Now he's poised to extend further the greatest season in the club's long history.

The sight of Ward raising the Dublin senior football trophy in October, at the expense of favourites Kilmacud Crokes, has already gone down in the club's folklore. It was the first such title the Blanchardstown-Castleknock club won since its foundation in 1932. Now each step further into Leinster brings a whole new adventure.

"Winning our first county title was really something," says Ward. "At the start of the year that was our ultimate ambition. And we did enjoy a little celebration after that. Then we regrouped again and thought about the road ahead. And realised how great it would be to win Leinster.

"So as we've progressed through Leinster I suppose our ambition has changed a little. It's been a totally new venture for us, and a big learning curve. But now that we're in the final we'd really love to win the Leinster title. But you'd have to say that Round Towers will start as the favourites. They have that bit more experience in the championship that we don't."

But St Brigid's are gaining experience, fast. Getting past St Patrick's of Louth was difficult but they had Longford champions Clonguish well beaten before the end of their semi-final last month. And at 33 Ward might be at the older end of the team but others like Peader Andrews, Declan Darcy and the Gallagher cousins, Rory and Raymie, from Fermanagh, are no strangers to big-time football.

Round Towers have some veteran names of their own in Glen Ryan and Brian Lacey. They've come out of Kildare for the third time in the last decade (previously in 1996 and 1998) although they too will be contesting their first Leinster final. For St Brigid's though they represent totally unknown opposition.

"Up to this season we'd only been used to playing Dublin clubs," says Ward, who shares the midfield role with Ken Darcy.

"And we knew more or less exactly how they play. Since we've come into Leinster every game is an unknown entity. Playing against teams we've never played before. And that's the situation we're facing against Round Towers.

"So we just know we going to have to play to the best of our ability. And it was the same in our first game against St Patrick's, which was our Leinster final. And again against Clonguish. In different ways they were two very difficult games."

Since first joining St Brigid's back in 1978 Ward has seen a few generations of players pass through the club. Though he never made the big breakthrough at senior intercounty level he did play minor and under-21 for Dublin, before spending a brief spell with Leitrim in 1994.

In more recent years he was part of the Dublin senior panel under Tommy Carr. But you could count on one hand the amount of senior games he's missed with his club, and there's always been a good reason. He puts this season's breakthrough down to a few different things.

"First of all we have a very good management team in place this year in Gerry McEntee and Paddy Clarke. They have given this team a lot more drive and focused the effort a lot more than previous years.

"We've made use of better training methods and also better facilities. And the supporters have been coming out in greater numbers too, which always helps. Also having the likes of the Gallagher cousins in there makes a difference because they do bring that bit of added experience into the team, coming from a different football county."

Bringing the Leinster title back to the north Dublin suburbs would make the difference between a good Christmas party in the club, and a great one.

"It would be every player's dream to captain their club to a provincial title,"says Ward. "Captaining the county final was just exceptional. And you know you're not going to get too many opportunities to captain a winning side in Leinster."

What is a little less certain is which club the winners in Navan on Sunday will play in the All-Ireland semi-final next February 22nd.

An Ghaeltacht, first-time Munster champions, must first get past Tara of London this Sunday before booking their date with the first-time Leinster champions.

The other two first-time champions, Caltra from Connacht and Loup from Ulster, will met in the other semi-final on the same day. The club hurling semi-finals take place a week earlier, February 15th, and involve Dunloy of Antrim

against Portumna of Galway,

and O'Loughlin Gaels of Kilkenny against the winners of this Saturday's quarter-final between Newtownshandrum (Cork) and Fr Murphy's (London).

Sunday's Leinster final, incidentally, goes out live on TG4 from 1.45, with the throw-in at Páirc Tailteann in Navan set for 2.0.

SATURDAY

All-Ireland Club SH championship quarter-final: Fr Murphy's, London v Newtownshandrum, Cork, Ruislip, 1.30, T McIntyrne (Antrim).

SUNDAY

Leinster Club SF final: St Brigid's, Dublin v Round Towers, Kildare, Navan, 2.0, E Murtagh (Longford).

All-Ireland Club SH championship quarter-final: Tara, London v An Ghaeltacht, Kerry, Ruislip, 2.0, S McCormack (Meath)